ZombieSkin

June 23, 2010 at 2:46pm

Actually, going through it for the second time, I find that the shooting is incredibly precise (on the PC version, at least). It's the kind of game that you can slow down a little bit with, and get into the intricacies of the weapons. The weapons also have a sweet spot for range, individually - again, play with them all, find your favorites. It ain't a twitchfest, but I had a ton picking the helmets off my prey before the kill shot, or running around and backpedaling while killing the big beasties that are breathing down your throat. Enemies also react nicely, even without physx stuff, but not as over-the-top as, say, Fallout 3's physics. I've headshotted dudes in F3, and they've flipped halfway across the map from the impact.

The scoped magnums (or whatever) are dirty and hard to see through at zoom, but the other weapons are pretty sweet. Love the spear gun, love the 6-round bayonette-d combat shotgun (which turns into a single/double shot in a firefight, for quicker reloading), love the throwing knifes, love all the semi-automatic stuff; all the weapons look great, and kind of have a personality, really.

My suggestion to anyone that really hates the shooting in this one, is to get into it a little more, slow down, and play with the weapons a bit. Speed might ruin a review, if there was an editor's deadline or something, but I'd rank this up with Deus Ex, or the Halflife stuff, easily, or about as exciting as the Gears weapons, which are so mainstream they make me puke. The guns aren't perfect in any of those games, but they are part of the experience, and I found them awesome and fun in Metro (except for the dirty scopes).

I did have some great AI battles, a lot of good ones, and the occasional AI retardation that I had to deal with. Stealth kills at range, mostly, as they sometimes freaked out that I was killing their friends, and sometimes, they just kept talking like the guy was still there listening, through what uses to be his ears.

Two things I'd also suggest: Don't buy any weapons, just look around in the cubbyholes a little, and you'll eventually find most (if not all), use your dough for ammo, and you can then keep your favorite guns throughout; If someone in-game tells you not to kill something, or avoid it, definitely kill it. Takes about 5-7 spears to the head for the dudes you're "not supposed to make eye contact with", they drop pretty easily, and pause after a couple of big hits, so you can pretty much just run away, turn, shoot in a loop, and then pile up on them when they pause.

While the game is pretty linear, they still left a lot in there to discover. Things totally do not go to crap if you go off the beaten path, which again leads me to believe that the reviewer either went too fast, or just happened to die a lot while exploring. Exploring is absolutely beneficial in the game - for finding special weapons and a ton more ammo - and it's actually a disservice to say things about a game that encourages exploration while remaining relatively linear. It's not always on rails, though; rails shooters are easy to pick out, this ain't one overall, but it is /some/times.

I'd really be interested to see how Thomas Macdonald liked the game.